Yearwood (Finnbranch volume 1) [Hardcover]

Paul Hazel (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; 1st edition (1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316352608
• ISBN-13: 978-0316352604
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,075,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange yet familiar, October 26, 2004

By 

Elizabeth A Triano "lizziewriter" (In Transition, NY (watch this space)) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Yearwood (Finnbranch volume 1) (Hardcover)

Yearwood is an unexpected book. On the one hand, it is full of half-familiar, half-remembered names from Celtic and Gaelic lore, old themes of selkies ("selchies"), speaking crows (think of the Northern Ravens), islands in the seas and other witcheries. For me the cadence took some getting used to, although 20-odd years ago when I read more of the older fantasies and original materials it would not have seemed so odd. The wounded hero, Finn, is not weak, but a mixture of ignorant and arrogant, the way youth and beauty can and should be. I think it is a very good book, but it is not fast and easy going, and it is not just the same old same old rehash of Americanized pop pseudo-Celtic themes. I am looking forward to reading Undersea and Winterking also. If you liked this melange of familiar yet not quite the same, you might like Tad Williams' To Green Angel Tower.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, why is it out of print?, June 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Yearwood (Finnbrach Trilogy, Vol 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

I thought this was a good book. Why the heck is it out of print? I think most of the fantasy genre is really crappy formula written. Everything since Tolkein has the same Tolkeinish plot, except Yearwood, which is not so much an epic about fantasy and killing the great evil plague. It was about a young boy coming of age in a dark time. Can't wait to read the other two books.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite Book and Author, May 2, 2007

By 

T. J. Reynolds (Eureka, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yearwood (Finnbrach Trilogy, Vol 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

This has been my favorite book since it first came out in the early 80's. I love Hazel's writing style, and the fact that it wasn't the typical fantasy crap. Finn is a very sympathetic character in that many people around him know who he is and what he's supposed to do, but no one will ever give him any straight answers. Because he is young and sometimes haughty and angry, things that seem plain to the reader still go right over his head. Alot of the mysteries Yearwood leaves you with are answered in the second book of The Finnbranch, Undersea. But then Undersea leaves you with more. The third book, Winterking, answers some of those, but is altogether very different from the first two. In fact, Finn is not even a major character. It took a few readings of Undersea and Winterking for me to unravel things. This would frustrate the hell out of many readers, I understand. Like I said, I love Hazel's writing.........

Hazel doesn't seem to publish anymore. I think he may still be teaching. I've read everything I could possibly find by him, but unfortunately, it's not much.